Just days after they hatched, two ducklings are fighting for their lives at the Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center after being rescued by a good Samaritan who said he saw two kids hit them with rocks in Boulder.

William Nash was walking with a few of his friends near 28th Street and Baseline Road around noon Thursday when he noticed a duck and eight or nine of her ducklings near a pond. Nearby, two kids, about 12 to 13 years old, were throwing rocks at the ducklings.

The mother and most of the ducklings were able to get away, but after the two kids ran off, Nash said he and his friends found two of the ducklings had been hit, so they scooped them up in a box.

"It was really sad," Nash said. "They were in distress and still calling out for their mom. They couldn't really swim and one couldn't even stand up."

At Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center near Longmont, Noonie Yaron, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who specializes in waterfowl, said both ducklings were dehydrated and stressed.

The more severely injured of the two had a swollen eye and was showing signs of a head injury, which led Greenwood staffers to fear it would not survive long.

Yaron said the ducklings appear to be mallards and each still had its egg tooth, which meant they hatched just days ago. The two ducklings were given some pain medication and fluids, and then left alone to get some rest in the hopes they could be more closely examined once they calmed down.

"They're brand new babies, and they have had some exposure and they are dehydrated," Yaron said. "We're going to give them some rest and de-stress them, and we will be able to assess them better.

"We're just going to have to wait and see."

Yaron said the duckling with the head injury is in an especially precarious situation, but even the second duckling is not out of the woods yet.

"It's almost impossible to raise a single baby duck, so we're hoping both of them will make it," Yaron said.

But Yaron is hoping that if the two ducklings pull through, the rehabilitation center will be able to rehab them.

"We're not a duck mom, but we will certainly do the best we can," Yaron said. "We'll raise them with other ducks and do the best we can to get them strong and healthy so we can release them into the wild."

As for the two kids Nash saw throwing rocks at the ducklings, Colorado Parks and Wildlife was notified of the incident and could investigate.

Nash said he couldn't believe someone would do such a thing.

"I didn't think anyone would throw rocks at a helpless duckling," Nash said. "People go to a pond or a creek to look at the ducklings or feed them because they are cute, so it was pretty shocking to see."

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